Joe Pyfer explains why he’s fighting Abus Magomedov at UFC 320 after previously turning him down

Joe Pyfer wants to set the record straight ahead of UFC 320.

Pyfer is set to take on Abus Magomedov on the main card in a pivotal fight at middleweight. The fight was made after Pyfer turned down Magomedov earlier this year. But after they both won their recent fights, Pyfer felt like the time was now for the bout to be made.

“The backstory behind this is, before I fought Kelvin, I was offered Abus,” Pyfer said at UFC 320 media day. “I said no because I didn’t like it and I didn’t think it made sense. I want to go up in the rankings, I know it would have done something for my resume, beating a guy like Abus before I beat Kelvin. But Abus was behind me, then he got the Michel Pereira fight, he won, he was ranked, I wasn’t. I won.

“The second I won, I told my manager, I said I want to fight Abus because I didn’t like the narrative that, I’m not going to say who, but they kind of acted like I didn’t want the fight because I was scared. I don’t know what it was. So, yeah, give me Abus Magomedov, let’s run it, he’s ahead of me,” Pyfer added.

Pyfer claims it was someone in the UFC who created the narrative that he was scared of Abus Magomedov, which he says is not true.

Joe Pyfer expects to hurt Abus Magomedov

With Pyfer being accused of being scared of Magomedov, he plans to prove that it is all wrong.

Entering the bout, Pyfer is confident he will be able to hurt Magomedov and finish him as others have done.

“He lost to Sean Strickland, and then he lost to Caio,” Pyfer said. “The common theme that I’m seeing in this matchup is that he’s able to get hurt. And, he slows down significantly after round two. Which is kind of funny because everyone shits on my cardio.”

Pyfer is coming off a decision win over Kelvin Gastelum to extend his win streak to two.